Why is INNOVATION important to our children?
Creating Innovators has compiled a sobering list of statistics and references to the importance INNOVATION to the sustainability of our American Culture. Each emphasizes the need for us to INCREASE our innovative thinking, especially in our youth.
These two struck me the deepest.
1. A survey by GE in 2011 of senior executives in 12 countries - 95% said INNOVATION is the main lever for a competitive national economy.
2. ALL of the NET new jobs in the last 5 years have been from start ups.
If we want to give our children any edge for their future, we need to be developing their INNOVATIVE skills.
Innovation isn't just technology, it's a way of thinking that addresses problems with creative approaches that aim for better, smarter, faster, more efficient and effective products, processes, and services.
Inventor Dean Kamen says "It was one human generation between building a machine that could lift a human and move him 100 ft (plane) to sending a man to walk on the moon and return."
Innovation is discovering the cure for cancer, developing an inexpensive way to clean dirty water for consumption, or create energy without pollution.... It's what drives economies, jobs, and the human spirit.
What are you doing to develop INNOVATIVE thinking in your child?